


Jennifer Brown and the Sea of Sirens

by Oryanna7



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24043675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oryanna7/pseuds/Oryanna7
Summary: Original characters in original settings within the Harry Potter universe.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> “Devon!” Jen screamed, salt water filling her nose, ears, and mouth. The waves were crashing relentlessly against the ship and she was barely able to stand, let alone see anything. She screamed out his name again, reaching out into the darkness where he was just standing. 
> 
> Another wave crashed into the side of the freighter and Jen’s grip on the railing slipped. She went smashing into the deck. Her body tossed around in the water until she slammed into the side of a steel container. Before she could grab anything, the motion of the ship riding down the trough of the wave caused her to slide down the deck and into another container, knocking all the air from her lungs.

Jennifer’s suitcase wheels clattered down the wooden path that led out to the lake. The air was just starting to get it’s first bits of autumn chill and even the trees had begun their transformations into rich red and yellow leaves. The only sounds throughout the park were distant traffic noise, morning birds peeping from the tops of the trees, and the water that lapped up to the edge of the sandy bank in calm, serene waves.

Jennifer looked down at her instructions one last time. All of her junior year paperwork was stapled together into a packet, on page five, after supply lists and curriculum, was the location of the portkey that would bring her to the transport to school and the name of the other student that would be taking the portkey with her. Looked like this year the portkey would be left on the lake’s dock. It was easy to find sitting on top of one of the railings as the dock was clean and free of any other debris. It was just a small bronze bell, like the type that hangs in the middle of a windchime.

She was early, as usual, so she pushed down the handle of her suitcase and used it as a chair. She took her school paperwork and neatly placed it into her bag. While she had her bag open, she spent some time double checking all of her personal supplies. Everything was there, down to her brand new pack of gel pens. Thankfully, most of her school supplies were bought in bulk by the school and would be waiting for her when she arrived at her dorm. Otherwise she’d have another entire suitcase with her.

Jennifer stared across the lake at nothing in particular. The soft wind blew across the water and over her ears, like it was trying to tell her a secret. A shutter ran up her spine and made her feel uncomfortable.

She tried to busy her mind to something else. Jen pulled her wand from her hair. As she did, all of her braids fell and cascaded onto her shoulders. She tapped her wand nervously in her hand. Four inch mpingo wood with naturally fallen golden bison hair core. American wands were much more practical than other styles. They could easily be concealed into an eyeglasses or fountain pen case. They could have handle attachments that would disguise them as common objects like a screwdriver or gardening shovel. Or they could be shaped down to be something small like a paintbrush. In Jen’s case, a simple hair pin. She always thought the European style wands were the silliest. They were far too big and unwieldy, like waving a conductor’s baton for every single spell. ‘Might as well go full medieval and make them into giant walking sticks like Merlin or something,’ she thought to herself.

A few minutes until it was time to leave, the other student that she was waiting for walked up. He was already wearing his school jacket. Jen noticed it was embroidered with a fierce wolf logo on the chest, the crest of the Lagahoo cohort, and a rival cohort to hers.

“Boo!” Jen chanted in jest as the boy walked up. Her voice was strangely loud in the quiet park.

“Hey Jen,” he said, he chuckled at her tease and extended a hand to shake hers.

“Hey Markus,” she replied. She shook his hand with a smile.

The two schoolmates went through their final checks together, securing their suitcase and wands with ribbon. Then they put two fingers each onto the portkey. In their heads they counted down the last few seconds before take off. Both of them tried to look like cool, seasoned portkey travelers in front of the other, but when that last second came, they both gasped loudly as they went whizzing and whirling through the air in a magically constructed wormhole.

The two landed with a thud into a grassy ditch on the side of a busy road. The blazing morning sun beat down on them. The two fixed their hair, adjusted their clothing, and picked up their luggage. Thankfully neither had their luggage opened or lost on the way, it was always an embarrassing predicament to be the cause of clothing to be strewn across several states. 

After getting themselves oriented and taking a gulping breath of humid air, they walked up the steep grassy incline of the roadside ditch up to the sidewalk. They looked up and down the street. To the right was the majority of the city of Tampa Bay and to the left were cruise ports. 

Both kids turned to the left and started their march to the port authority check-in. They entered the Normie security office using their automatic sliding doors.

The two traveling companions parted ways as they got into separate security lines to have their passports checked. 

After clearing the Normie security, Jen was directed to go to the end of Terminal 2. She followed the directions and walked outside to the very last dock. She knew she was in the right place when she saw a huge gathering of hundreds of parentless teenagers clamoring to board a majestic brigantine with white and gold sails. This was the ship that would be taking her to school. It was an old wooden ship run by pirates for generations.

A dozen adults were scattered among the crowd, herding the kids towards luggage check-in and onto the ship. They were dressed in cheap pirate costumes complete with red bandanas and blue and white striped knee socks. Somewhere nearby, a radio blared out the latest chart topping musical hits to energize the crowd. 

As she weaved through the horde, she overheard one of the costumed adults say to another, “I don’t even know how all these kids will fit in that ship. It barely looked like it’ll have enough room for all their junk, much less them.” That comment confirmed Jen’s suspicions. They were non-magical people that had no idea what was on the inside of that ship.

Jen continued to walk into the crowd that had formed along the dock. She looked around at all the other kids. Out in the real world, the kids were probably considered just quirky or a little odd. All of them together in a huge group like this though looked like the most delightful gathering of circus clowns.

One girl had pink and blue bubbles coming out of her hat that popped into small glittering puffs of smoke. Two others were introducing their pet parrots to each other. One boy was preventing a suspiciously large toad from jumping into the brackish water of the port. A small girl with long blonde hair was stretching out her arms to show her friends what appeared to be an iridescent tattoo of mermaid scales that covered her entire arms. Someone else’s luggage had violently popped open and an unreasonable amount of charts when rolling out everywhere.

Jen’s eyes widened. She didn’t recognize him at first, but those charts scattered on the floor belonged to none other than her best friend, Devon. He was scrambling around on all fours to pick them up. 

She went running over, her suitcase wheels clattering behind her. She dropped all of her belongings and helped to pick up the parchments before the other kids could step on them.

“Oh thanks!” Devon said meekly, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, piling all the charts into his backpack. No one around seemed to notice or care about the commotion.

Jen stood up with her handful of papers just as Devon grabbed the last one. He stood up to take them.

“Jen!” he exclaimed, finally looking at who was helping him. Jen looked up at her friend with a bit of shock. She never had to look upwards when she talked to him before. He also had a new haircut that was high and tight, making him seem even taller.

“Devon, hey! You got tall over the summer” she handed over the parchment. He blew air from his nose and shook his head in disagreement. He grabbed them and rather unceremoniously stuffed the papers into his backpack, trying his hardest to get it to zip up as quickly as possible. 

“Maybe you got short,” he attempted to joke, with an unsure smile. Jen made an exaggerated, drawn out fake laugh. 

They both turned as someone called out to them. “Someone’s bag opens up and a bunch of homework goes flying everywhere,” the voice from a distance started yelling over to them, “and of course it’s Devon! Who packs their homework? Who even does homework over the summer?”

Mayte came prancing up, silver bracelets clattering at her wrists, arms already opening for a huge hug. Mayte was the same height as usual but was wearing a blouse and red lipstick instead of her normal oversized t-shirt and fresh face.

“Mayte!” Jen squealed loudly to Devon’s chagrin. Mayte threw her arms around Devon and Jen at the same time and pulled them in for a group hug. The three friends took in the moment, glad to be back together.

“I love the bangs,” Jen said, stepping back from the hug and noticing that Mayte got a new haircut too, “Like Selena!”

Mayte looked up and made a motion to the sky in solace. Jen pulled her braids over one shoulder, feeling suddenly self conscious that everyone looks so different and grown up except for her.

“Guau” Mayte looked up at Devon, “you got gigantic in like, two months. What gives? Give me whatever you’re taking!” Devon blushed even harder, finally getting the zipper of his backpack fully closed.

One of the adults closer to the ship held up a bullhorn and spoke with zero enthusiasm, “Avast! Only forty minutes left to check in. Please get in line to board the vessel, mateys.” 

“Oh, I need to check in my luggage!” Jen grabbed her suitcase handle.

“Me too!” Devon flung one of the straps of his backpack over his shoulder.

Mayte waved her room key in the air, “I’m actually first of the three of us to get something done. Going to be a good year, huh? See you inside. Let’s try to get a table by the starboard windows for dinner!” They all nodded in agreement.

Devon grabbed his duffle bag and followed Jen to the luggage check-in line. The two waited quietly together as they worked their way to the front. Some other adult porters helped them check in and get their belongings onto the luggage cart. The two friends then followed the crowd to the ship.

Jen would normally be unloading a million stories to Devon and Mayte about every action and thought she had over the summer. But this summer was different. They both already knew that her dad had completely shut her out of his life and absorbed himself into his work. Jen spent most of her time running, to nowhere in particular, just running.

After chucking their luggage, Jen and Devon walked with the other kids in single file along the dock and to the thin wooden plank that connected to the ship’s top deck. 

Another adult stood proudly near the cargo hold doors and helped the kids get onto the ladder that led below deck. He wasn’t in costume however, and was in authentic pirate gear. Jen never knew the whole story about these pirates, whether they were ghosts or people that didn’t age or what.

“Welcome aboard!” he greeted each and every one, extending a hand to help them steady themselves on the sea. When it was Jen’s turn, she looked down to his hand before grabbing it and noticed he had a real peg leg. That was new. She thanked him, grabbed his hand, and climbed onto the ladder.

As she descended down, the cargo hold opened up into a magnificent lobby that would rival any cruise ship. Jen jumped off at the last few rungs, and turned towards the balcony. She was on the highest of four magnificent floors. Her current floor was for the incoming freshman. Jen made her way to the elevator to go to the floor that belonged to her cohort.

The ship was an amazing sight on the inside. Most of the ship's interior was wood, ladened with barnacles and lichen. Some of the old barnacle skeletons had precious gems stuck in them that unknowing freshmen would cut their hands open attempting to pull them out. The railing of each of the open floors was twisted with golden ropes. A two-story chandelier made of silver, crystal, and seashells glittered as it swung softly from the ceiling. Personless brooms swept up piles of beach sand. Tiny ghost crabs scuttled out of the way and into holes in the walls.

Kids hung over the balconies, enchanting paper dirigibles and biplanes to fly across to the other side. Bubbles were coming from somewhere on the second floor and floating around to all the other floors. People were running to find friends or find their room and largely ignoring the scattered adults that couldn’t contain the madness.

Jen took in a deep breath. It felt good to be back here again.


	2. Chapter 2

The line for the dining hall always filled up early, but Jen was prompt enough to be eighth in line. The entrance to the dining hall was located on the stern of the bottom floor of the ship. Once inside the double doors, the students could choose their seats at any table within the layers of lofts that climbed up and around the huge beams that supported the three story room. The lofts were twisted around and layered on top of each other, giving the entire room the feeling of an underwater ant colony. Two walls had floor to ceiling windows which showcased a spectacular ocean view, underwater view of course. 

Jen craned her neck and attempted to find Devon and Mayte in the crowd of people waiting in line, but couldn’t find them. She turned back around and clutched the two small boxes she held in her hands a little bit tighter.

As soon as the doors opened, she walked very quickly up one of the spiraling staircases to a second floor loft. Then over to the starboard windows to get a premium table right against the glass. The rest of students filed in like cattle escaping a barn on the first day of spring.

Each natural wood table sat six students, three on either side. The place settings had polished wooden plates and flatware, all encrusted with various sea shells or gold flakes. A few exotic birds flew around in the higher lofts while a couple spider monkeys swung around the staircases. Yellowing candles floated in place all around the hall to create a soothing atmosphere.

By dinner time, the ship had long set sail underneath the ocean’s waves and was far from the coast. Dolphins, mahi mahi, marlins, and schools of mackerels would sometimes make appearances through the windows, but for the most part the view was nothing but peaceful, endless open ocean. 

Devon got to the table first and sat across from Jen. He softly laid down a rolled up parchment paper next to his silverware. Mayte joined the table right in time to help Jen and Devon chase away some absolutely insufferable freshman kids that wanted to take over all of the seats. After the freshman bowed out, the last seats were filled by some other senior kids.

“Boss seats, Jen!” Mayte complimented as she sat down to Jen’s right side. She carefully placed down a small bottle with a silver fluid inside and three other vials to the side of her drinking cup, attempting to hide them from view. Mayte took her class schedule from her pocket, unfolded it, and set it down on the table.

Jen quickly took hers out and laid it next to Mayte’s. Devon, too, pulled his schedule out from his jacket pocket and threw it onto the pile.

“We all have Abjuration together on Tuesday!” Jen said excitedly, comparing all three schedules, “I didn’t know you were going to take Abjuration, Devon!”

He nodded, “I figured it might be fun.”

“Thought you said Abju was too-,” Mayte wiggled her fingers through the air, “like, nonsensical or something.”

“Well, the way you two talk about the teacher,” Devon chortled and started using an exaggerated woman’s voice, “You must remember to breathe in sharply and exhale your intentions!”

“Well, it’s true!” Jen defended jovially, “Projecting your intentions is basically Abjuration 101. If you’re going to take that class, you better live that principle!”

“Oh thank goodness,” Mayte pointed to the Friday evening class, “At least I have physical fitness with you, Jen.” Jen smiled widely, having a friend in PE always made things way more fun. And now Jen didn’t have to worry about Mayte this year. Jen was usually one of the first picks for competitive sports. Mayte was often last, and it nearly broke her every single time. And it crushed Jen equally as hard to see her friend so distressed.

“We have Transmutation together, Devon,” Mayte’s excitement was growing and growing.

“You’re taking Transmutation? That’s excellent!” Devon chimed in with pride. That was considered one of the harder classes in the entire curriculum. Students that aced Transmutation often ended up being very successful in life.

“Yeah,” Mayte folded her schedule up and returned it to her pocket, “My mom said I should choose an elective that will ‘push me to challenge myself for once.’ But honestly, as long as I learn that lead-to-gold thing, it’ll all be worth it.”

“You know we’re not allowed to do-” Devon began, but Mayte interrupted, “Don’t spoil the fun.”

“Okay,” Jen pointed over to the little vials, “I can’t wait any longer. What are those?”

Before Mayte could answer, the lights in the room dimmed. Some jokester screamed loudly, pretending to be afraid of the sudden darkness, which caused a large portion of the kids to laugh. Two large polished brass mirrors reflected a spotlight down near the base of the doors. All the kids went silent.

A man wearing a kanzu and sport coat stepped into the light.

“Welcome students!” he began in a clear and loud voice. All the students cheered rambunctiously, “Welcome to another year of learning! Another year of growing! Another year of becoming the best versions of yourselves!” The students clapped and cheered even louder. 

“For you fresh faces, I am Asili Rioba, the Dean of the Port Royal School of Magic.” The returning students stood and cheered as loud as they could. Mr. Rioba was a gentle and benevolent man, he was fiercely loved by all the students. He smiled widely, his eyes full of pride from the joy the students were expressing for him. He motioned for the kids to quiet down.

“This dinner will be a special one,” his voice calmed, which instantly calmed the crowd, “because it is another dinner I get to share with all of you. It’s the beginning of another year where I get to learn from you. I get to witness what you all are becoming and see your positive impact on the world begin to take root.

“In about eight hours, we’ll arrive in Jamaica. Freshman, you will go to the top deck to deboard. No need to bring your belongings with you. All others, report to the lower deck. Are you all ready to get this year going? Can I hear-” but the rest of his sentence was drowned out by the cheers of all the students. They would bang on the tables or whistle. Mayte whistled loud and sharp enough to practically shatter glass. Even Devon was hollering as loud as he could.

“Let’s have an amazing, productive, and safe school year everyone! Now let’s feast!”

Dozens of house elves dressed in various colored tunics delivered trays of food, balanced on their heads, around to all the tables. They dropped a couple trays into the center of the table and let the kids take what they wanted from each. One tray had fish fillets, a variety of shrimp, conch soups, clam chowders, and a bunch of deep-fried items. Another had perfectly ripe fruit. And the last had carbs and vegetables, like breads, mashed sweet potato, rice, ugali wedges, okra, and much more. Some other house elves filled their cups with various fruit juices and water. Jen, Mayte, and Devon wasted no time filling their plates and joining the other kids at the table in a hardy cheers. 

“To Port Royal,” one of the senior kids said, raising her glass. Devon looked over to Jen and added in a quick, “To Alisha.” They all clinked glasses and cheered.

Just a few bites into their food, the reason for getting the window seat occurred. All of the lights within the ship dimmed and went out. All the students went silent and looked to the windows. It felt like ten minutes past with all the students in anxious silence.

A kraken went swimming by far in the distance, it’s dark purple body swirling like ink freshly dropped into a murky glass of water. Each of the twelve tentacles must have been tens of meters long. All the students watched in awe as it snaked and twisted through the water and out of sight. It was a unique view and one not a lot of people get as most people get eaten if they see it this close. They were left in the darkness for a few more moments as it passed completely out of sight.

All of the lights simultaneously flickered back on and the student’s chatter and scraping of flatware on plates started up once again.

A quarter of the way into dinner, Jen remembered her question from earlier, “So, what’s in the vials?” She pointed over to the little vials still sitting on the table. It was no doubt part of the tradition Jen had started two years ago when they were all freshman.

On her very first trip to school aboard this very boat, Jen held three bracelets in her pocket. She knew making friends would be awkward and nerve-wracking. So, she made three little bracelets with tiny wooden beads that she would give as gifts to the kids around her, something her mother taught her to do as a way to break the ice.

One her first time attending dinner on the ship, she just took the first seat at the first table she could find. It was next to a skinny boy who was clutching a book about the moon’s craters. Jen asked him if he liked astronomy, then spent the entire dinner happily listening to him talk about stars. That’s how she gave her first bracelet to Devon.

After dinner was over and she went back to her room. One of her bunk mates asked Jen to braid her hair. That girl needing the braid talked to Jen for hours about her family and her mother who was beautiful and her father who was strong. Jen knew that this girl obviously missed them and was nervous to be away from home for so long, but Jen happily listened to all the funny stories she had to tell that night. After another of the girls in the cabin yelled at them to be quiet so she could sleep, Jen gave her second bracelet to that girl, who was named Mayte.

Ever since then, they all stayed friends. And also had a tradition of giving each other small gifts each boat ride to school.

“This!” Mayte finished chewing her bite of food and picked up the bottle of silver colored liquid, “This is a Draught of Peace that I made for ole stressed test taker over here.” She reached over all the plates and put the bottle in front of Devon.

“Thank you, Mayte! This is actually really useful!” Devon picked up the bottle and inspected the contents closely. Jen agreed, smiling brightly. Devon is insanely smart, but tends to overthink things. He’s been known to flunked a few tests from running out of time to finish.

“Aaand this,” Mayte grabbed all three of the other vials together in one hand and put them in front of Jen, “is Murtlap Essence for Miss Plays Way Too Hard on Sports Games That Don’t Matter At All Because We All Get An A For Showing Up And Participating.”

“Whoa, you made these? You are so good at brewing,” Jen understated. Mayte was a natural born potion brewer. Jen picked up the vials and carefully placed them in her jacket pocket. Jen also happened to recognize that the ingredients for these particular potions weren’t exactly easy to come by where Mayte was from. That made her doubly grateful.

“Well, I went the opposite direction of you, Mayte,” Jen shoveled a shrimp into her mouth and quickly chewed it while pulling out the little boxes she was holding earlier. She placed one in front of each of the others. “I chose gifts that were gaudy and very impractical.”

“My favorite type of gift,” Mayte gleefully opened her box to see a gold butterfly clip with little red wings that were attached to the body by tiny springs. Mayte made an impossibly high pitched squeak and ripped the clip from the box and immediately pinned it into her bun. Once it was securely pinned, the mechanical butterfly sprung to life and fluttered once around her head. It landed back onto the clip and its wings turned a bright green.

“It changes color depending on your mood,” Jen smiled, “I thought you might like that.”

Mayte nodded her head vehemently, “I love it!”

Devon had his box opened already and was looking inside. It was a small polished moonstone earring. 

“Remember last year when you tried the Reducto spell and did it so well that it shattered a bunch of objects in Mr. Wheeler’s classroom around the target? That’s from a smoldering shard of moonstone that broke off and went flying around the room.” 

Devon laughed, “I’ll never live that down, huh?” He looked at it with a curious look that Jen couldn’t really place. She took it to mean he liked it.

Mayte chimed in happily, “Live it down? It was really cool! People thought you were some sort of savant for like, a week!”

Devon waved off the compliment and quickly moved on. He picked up the rolled up parchment that he set aside. He carefully moved some of the glasses around to clear a small space on the table. Jen took a gulp of her drink as she moved it out of the way. She wasn’t sure if Devon liked the gift. Maybe it was too much. He normally wore just a simple, very small gold hoop. Maybe this was too flashy?

“I swear if you show us some sort of math problem, I’m going to demand a refund on our friendship,” Mayte joked, helping to move some of the plates. Devon unrolled the parchment and oriented it so it was facing the girls. It was a star chart.

“I spent all summer studying these stars,” Devon pointed near the center of paper, “seems the Normie tech like the Hubble telescope are picking up a bunch of really cool new discoveries out there. Including these two stars. They’re binary stars, you know, when two stars-,”

“I know what binary stars are Devon” Mayte said jovally, leaning in closer to look at the spot he was pointing at. Jen leaned in too. He was pointing at two tiny little dots that were snuggled against each other among hundreds of others. He then tapped on the little stars three times. Suddenly the dots grew larger and lifted off the page. The two little stars became a sort of glowing projection over the paper, peacefully revolving around one another in the middle of the table. The other kids sitting at their table stopped their conversation and looked over at the commotion.

“I discovered those stars, by Normie and Magical standards. And since I discovered them, I got to officially name them. That one is MLo-0993 and the other is JBr-0993.”

Jen and Mayte let out a drawn out, high pitched “aww” sound.

“Our initials and the date that we met!” Jen looked past the little projection to Devon, “That’s so nice! Our friendship is declared to the whole universe, Mayte!”

The girls cooed over the stars for a few moments as they retreated back down onto the parchment. Jen grabbed the paper and rolled it back up. “I’ll hang this up in our dorm.” 

The three friends spent the rest of dinner talking over what classes they were excited about and how their team would fare in the Tlachtli competition this year. When the dessert tray came around, Mayte chose the pineapple upside down cake, Jen chose the green tea ice cream, and Devon chose the flan. They could barely eat it from being so full already. 

The three retreated into their bunks after dinner and fell into a deep and happy food-coma sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning was a bit hectic. The way the adults on board tried to organize the line for the upperclassmen to get off the boat didn’t really work out and the line turned into a crowd of teenagers itching to get off the ship through one small door.

“Everyone push each other, you’ll get there a lot faster!” Jacob Holt yelled out near the back of the crowd, which caused laughter that quickly ended when some people actually started pushing someone else. Jen and Devon stood near the edge. Jen didn’t mind waiting somewhere less hectic with Devon, she wasn’t in a hurry.

She noticed he was wearing the moonstone earring she made for him. Jen looked down to the floor and smiled with relief.

A small crowd of house elves walked through the throng of unruly kids with large baskets of food, handing out sliced papaya, bananas, hawaiian rolls, and guava pastries. 

Slowly but surely the crowd straightened out, mostly due to the elves forming a food line that the kids followed, and people started to make their way off the ship. Mr. Rioba was milling through the crowd, making idle conversation with the kids.

When he got close to Devon, he extended a hand to shake his, “Ah, Devon Hartman, I can’t wait to read through your end of year thesis. The quality of your previous year still lingers in my mind! Good idea to be waiting on the side like this!”

Devon shook Mr. Rioba’s hand with enthusiasm, “We’ll all get there, no need to rush.”

“Smart and patient! Good man!” Mr. Rioba chuckled, then turned his gaze to Jen, “Miss Jennifer Brown, I hope to see you make captain this year!”

Jen smiled brightly, “Thank you! I plan on trying my very best!”

“You always do!” he shook her hand, then turned to the next person in the crowd and made polite conversation with them.

“I hope I have at least an ounce of his goodness in me when I’m older,” Devon whispered to Jen. She giggled softly. Jen was more amazed that he knew the names of every single person in the room.

Jen and Devon waited next to each other, in mostly silence, for the crowd to thin substantially before inching to the door. When it was close to their turn, Devon turned to Jen and leaned down a little closer to her.

“You good with this?” he whispered.

Jen looked at him softly, “Yeah, I should be good.”

He nodded and stepped up to the exit door.

A house elf, one with her head wrapped in a blue and yellow dhuku, waved Devon up to be next. Devon followed instruction and stepped up to the exit door, which was just a large porthole really. The elf conjured up a large bubble around Devon to protect him. Outside of the door was nothing but endless blue ocean water that was held back by a bubble of its own. Devon stepped up to the door and awkwardly squeezed through it. Jen could tell he was going to tumble on the way down.

The house elf motioned for Jen to step up. She conjured a bubble around Jen’s body. It was an uncomfortable feeling, like wearing a really loose jumpsuit.

Jen lifted a leg high and stepped into the doorway. She halted for a moment to take in a deep breath. Then, she squeezed through the door. Keeping her body stiff, she fell a few feet down through the water and hit the ocean floor with a small thud, protected by the bubble that formed around her body.

Jen looked up from where her feet hit the ground. There was nothing but water and sand. She felt a strange sort of pressure press down on her chest. Fear was rising up into her throat and was making it hard to breathe. Panic was setting in.

Devon was standing among the endless tides, a couple steps away from the landing zone, waving at her. 

He put out a hand to help her take the first few steps. Although their bubble prevented any real grip, being close to someone else made her panic subside. She took a single step forward. Then another. Their steps felt sluggish, like they were walking on the moon… or well, wading through water. No one could really hear anything, just muffled sounds of the ocean currents against their bubble suits.

The more she moved along the ocean’s bottom, the more the fear subsided.

A small school of tiny glowing fish swam over to them, circling around Devon and Jen, then forward along the path that would lead them to school. She concentrated on moving forward and the panic was subsiding. It wasn’t long before the pair reached the end of the line of kids that were marching along the ocean bottom.

Mermaids swam through the line of kids, some of them attempting to pop their bubbles or trying to knock the kids over with a harsh swish of their tails.

One mermaid swam right up to Devon and startled him. She appeared so quickly and out of nowhere! Thankfully she wasn’t a shark. She attempted to try to rip holes into his bubble, but it didn’t give way. She swam in circles all around him, widing the distance between him and Jen. The two tried to ignore her and kept walking forward.

When the mermaid couldn’t figure out a way to rip open Devon’s bubble, she stopped in front of him and started to blow him kisses. She was mouthing something to him, no doubt singing a siren song. Her long white tresses danced around her face, barely covering her human torso. The glow from the guiding fish glinted off of her blueish-silver skin.

Jen stepped over to her and pushed the mermaid out of Devon’s line of walking. The mermaid got mad and clawed at Jen’s bubble like a cat, pulling on her arms, but unable to grip the bubble’s surface. Jen stood unwavering, knowing the bubble would hold. She held up a single finger at the mermaid in a rude gesture.

The mermaid swam away, stirring up a cloud of ocean sand in her wake, and disappeared into the calm watery depths. They continued their walk.

As they got closer to shore, shadows cast onto Jen and Devon from above. It was the rowboats that took the freshman into the front gates. All of the rowboats were surrounded by mermaids and sharks. Puffs of smoke and flashes of bright lights appeared above the surface. Jen wondered if the pirates put on the same show every year or if they ever did something different.

It was about ten more minutes, but they finally made it. There she was, laying at the bottom of the ocean, the ruins of the city of Port Royal, Jamaica. Random pillars and corners of buildings were mostly all that remains, cluttered with unidentifiable stones. The foundations of where the town once stood were covered in sand and seaweed. 

Jen and Devon stepped through the old archways of the King’s Wharf and down the steps into the main levels of the school, right underneath the ruins of the city. They marched through the large side entrance. As they did, their bubbles popped and they were back in the open air, but still under the sea. Jen turned around to look at the water held at bay by a magical permeable shield. Like a window made of jelly.

The interior of the main hall was mostly beige stucco walls, in some places chipped away and exposing the bright red and orange brick wall underneath. Dried barnacles and the skeletons of old coral sometimes clumped up around the ceiling in spots. Wrought-iron chandeliers and wall sconces held beeswax candles that cast a warm yellow light around the room. A small alcove contained pillar candles, flowers, and bowls of papaya.

Flags decorated the halls, one for Jamaica and one for each of the school’s cohorts. A vicious and beautiful mermaid twirled around on her flag which represented the Dglo cohort. The students under this flag were often outgoing, athletic, and hardworking. They all were required to take four years of abjuration classes. The next flag had a black wolf silently staring at the students. He represented a driven, practical, and charismatic group of students in the Lagahoo cohort, all of which needed to take four years of illusion classes. The last flag contained a large thick legged spider, the Ananse cohort. These students were studious, curious, and oftentimes troublemakers. They were required to take four years of divination. 

Jen and Devon just finished checking in with some school admins that were noting everyone that made it off the boat safely when Mayte ran up to them in the main hall. “I’m so ready for classes to start!” 

“Uh,” Devon raised his eyebrow at her, “Since when did you like going to class?”

Mayte ignored Devon and whipped her head over to Jen with excitement, “I have two classes with Max!”

Jen and Devon both sighed exasperatedly. Mayte stamped her foot down, “what!?”

“Don’t let that boy do this to you every year!” Jen scolded her. Max Viridi was beautiful no doubt, with his stylish hair, green eyes, and dimples, but he was also a terrible person that would play with the hearts of all the girls in school. He was the worst. And happened to be Mayte’s on again, off again boyfriend.

“He said he did a lot of growing over the summer. And he’s different now, more mature!” Mayte smoothed down the baby hairs curling near her ears with a wide smile, “He loved my new haircut.”

“Cool,” Devon said sarcastically. Mayte responded by quickly sucking air through her teeth at them.

“Let’s go see the freshman get placed,” Devon changed the subject.

On the first day, the upperclassman got to have a free day to hang out with their friends on campus and get situated, but it was always recommended to go cheer on the freshman as they get placed into their cohorts. It was usually a fun little event too.

As they made the long trek to the Fort James Athletic Hall, Mayte and Devon chatted animatedly about some tv show the two liked that Jen didn’t watch over the summer. But Jen was happy just to be listening to the conversation. She would half listen and half look at all the faces of each of the other students as they rushed past, waving to those that she knew. Everyone was bathed in the soft rippled sunbeams shining through the water and onto their heads from the skylights above. There weren’t traditional windows in the halls, since it was all under the sand, but some places had glass roofs or skylights that just barely reached out from the sand and allowed natural dappled light to shine in.

Most everyone was headed in the same direction as the three friends, except for two people standing on the side in one of the hallways. As soon as Jen saw who it was, it made her heart sink. Taylor Fordinal and Rose Patel were talking intimately near a coral covered pillar in the hall. Rose had her back to Jen, but Jen accidentally made eye contact with Taylor. And he looked right back at her. She prayed that her brown skin wouldn’t reveal how red her face got in that moment.

When they got into the athletics hall, the sorting was already underway. It seems Lagahoo were getting a freshman added to their group right as they walked in.

“La! Gah! Hooooo!” the Lagahoo section of the bleachers erupted, the last syllable turning into a wolf’s howl. The trio rushed over to get a seat in the bleachers. They took a seat and looked out at the procession in progress.

The freshmen were grouped up into the middle of the open floor, looking terrified. The head sorter, whose story was quite a mystery to the students, sat in a chair directly behind a small wooden table that held a shallow bowl of water. Behind her were the three altars for each cohort, each one had a huge flag hanging from the rafters. The altars were surrounded in petals, fruits, and dozens and dozens of candles and some unique features to each mascot.

The Ananse altar had huge spider webs strung about between unbelievably high stacks of books and coins. Various gourds were scattered among all of it. The Dglo altar was piled with seashells, silver hand mirrors and golden hair brushes, with small eels that were enchanted to swim around in thin air. The Lagahoo altar included a couple coffins wrapped in heavy chains, piles of tied palm fronds, and bottles of unknown substances piled high.

The head sorter motioned for the next teen with a soft wave of her fingers. She was beautiful, dressed in all white, and smiling peacefully, but intimidating all the same. The room quieted slightly.

The freshman walked up to the little bowl of water. He was sweating a bit.

“Definitely Ananse,” Mayte chuckled softly.

“What do you see?” the sorter asked him quietly and motioned to the water. The kid visibly gulped and looked down to the water.

It was a few moments of silence until the boy looked up at her and said, his voice barely audible, “Fire.”

The sorter threw up her hand and the candles in the Ananse altar burst into life, tiny spiders came rushing out of the gourds and skittered around the area.

Devon threw his hands into the air and wiggled his fingers to represent a spider and joined in on the Ananse chant. Jen applauded politely.

“That was an obvious one,” Jen nudged Mayte with the back of her hand. Mayte smiled bright, nodding in agreement. The new Ananse student looked around at the people applauding him, then went back to his seat.

The sorter called up the next one and the room quieted again and the Ananse altar went back to being still. The next kid was a tall young man with broad shoulders. He looked down into the water.

“Dglo!” Jen and Mayte said to each other, a little too loudly in the mostly silent room. A couple people around them looked over, laughing in agreement.

“A snake?” he told the sorter. She raised up her arm and the Dglo altar sprang to life, a large mermaid with seaweed and serpents in her hair swam up from behind a pile of seashells and back down again. Mayte and Jen joined in on the chant as the new Dlgo student walked back to his seat.

The three sat happily in each other’s company and made jokes and tried guessing the students cohorts until all of them were finished. It ended up being a pretty even split for once, but Dglo got slightly more than the other two cohorts this year. Jen noticed that Devon was being more outspoken than last year, cheering even for kids not in his cohort, he was making jokes and even returning some of Mayte’s sassy comments.

Near the end of the ceremony, the trio followed the crowd to the next event being hosted that day. It was club sign-ups. Port Royal School had a lot of clubs. The less serious clubs were ones like astronomy club, botany club, and crafters club. These were mostly gatherings of like-minded students to talk and hang out in cooler areas of the school after hours without adults around. There were tons of sports to sign up for, some of which were very competitive. Then there were teacher sponsored academic clubs, like Brewsters, Fountains of Fortune, Beach Cleaners, and Dueling. These clubs had regional and national competitions or academic decathlons.

The trio walked through the tables, looking at the posters and sign-up sheets.

“Are you going to join Brewsters this year, Mayte?” Devon asked as they passed by the Brewsters table. Mayte didn’t answer and was craning her neck around, looking through the crowd.

“I think you should,” Devon continued, “you made a Draught of Peace for the fun of it. That takes a lot of work to get right.”

“Yeah, Mayte,” Jen agreed, “You should totally do it. You’d run the place.”

“I’m going to go find Max,” Mayte pranced off into the crowd. Jen and Devon looked at each other and rolled their eyes. 

Jen looked at the sign up sheet that sat on the table. Without another thought, she picked up the pen and filled out the sheet for Mayte. Devon made an exaggerated gasp.

“She’ll thank me later,” Jen reassured him.

“I honestly think she will,” Devon agreed.

Devon and Jen walked around for a bit more, talking to a few people here and there. Jen put her name down for tryouts for Tlachtli and kabaddi, and considered crafting club for a long moment. Ultimately though, if she made the Tlachtli team again, it would consume most of her time after class and decided against it.

Devon signed up for some of the usual academic clubs he liked. Basically, they were a bunch of smarties that sat around and quizzed each other. He tried to convince Jen that they were fun, like a trivia night, but Jen wasn’t buying it.

“Trivia nights are only fun because you can impress people with your knowledge of useless things,” she rebutted his attempt to get her to sign up, “these clubs are just… test prep classes pretending to be fun.”

Devon laughed heartily, “Well, you’re not really wrong.”

Devon split off from Jen when he saw some classmates from his cohort he wanted to catch up with, so Jen happily let him hang without her tagging along. Instead, she decided to head to her dorm room and unpack.

Jen walked through the halls slowly, not in any hurry to leave the excitement of the crowd. The halls between classrooms would often turn from interiors of old buildings into reinforced caves below the surface of the ocean floor.

Just as Jen rounded the corner that would lead to the stairs to the dorms, someone was running on the other side of the corner and smashed right into her.

“Sorry!” he said, taking a step back. Jen exhaled a deep breath from her nose and looked at the person’s face. For the second time today, her heart nearly stopped. It was Taylor again.

“Already running away from trouble on the first day?” Jen muttered to him.

“Jennifer! I- I totally wasn’t paying attention, sorry! It was just this...” Taylor’s voice trailed off.

“It’s fine,” Jen straightened her shirt out and walked past him. But just as she turned away from him, he grabbed her wrist.

“Jen,” he said, not looking at her face, “I really should be telling you sorry for… before.”

Jen yanked her hand away, “You don’t have to apologize.”

“No,” Jacob continued, “I should have been there for you.”

Jen could feel the sadness rise in her throat, like a giant ball that was threatening to suffocate her. She tried to swallow it, but fighting it only made it harder to prevent the tears from forming in her eyes.

“My father was with me. Devon and Mayte were there. I was fine. I’m fine,” Jen choked out. She started to walk away from him, “Everyone that mattered to her was there.”


	4. Chapter 4

The wind pounded against the wooden shutters protecting the glass windows. Sheets of water rained down the corrugated steel roof and was making it hard to hear anything but the storm that was whipping up outside.

The Port Royal women’s volleyball team were barricaded inside one of the local Normie buildings on shore, a dry storage room for a restaurant. It smelled like fry oil and industrial cleaning supplies.

Jen was just a sophomore and never really lived on a tropical island. She wasn’t sure if this is how storms are normally.

“Do we like, wait this out or should we go back to school?” Jen yelled over the wind and rain to one of the seniors.

“I don’t know, this is a really weird storm,” Tonya answered with visible concern on her face. The underclassman team was sparring against the senior team for practice on the beach and it was a perfectly sunny day. Within seconds, the storm hit the shore with an amazing ferocity and chased the girls inside the closest building.

Flashes of blue and green lightning struck the ground close by, followed by immediate cracks of thunder that were loud enough to shake the building. Suddenly, the temperature inside the building dropped. It was like they were standing inside of a refrigerator. 

“Alisha? Alisha!” Crystal’s voice screamed. Three other girls moved back away from Alisha Brown, who was standing upright and rigid. She was glowing a violent green color, like she was a toxic waste barrel in a retro tv show. 

“Alisha!” Jen stood up and lunged towards her sister, reaching towards her. Alisha’s eyes were completely void of life.

Tonya caught Jen in her arms before she could touch her sister’s face. “No!” she told Jen, “Don’t touch her!”

“Alisha! What is that?” Jen cried out to her sister. The temperature in the room started to drop.

Alisha was expressionless. She took two steps forward and the other girls near her stepped back. Alisha continued forward and parted through the small crowd of girls to the door.

“No!” the crowd called out without touching her, “Stop!” They all begged her to stay.

Crystal ran over to a puddle on the ground, the only reflective surface in the room. She pulled the wand from the back of her sports bra and whipped it through the air and onto the puddle. The image of a teacher appeared in the reflection. Crystal started explaining the situation to the reflection and the teacher’s face grew more concerned.

Alisha didn’t stop though and opened the door. Rain went flying into the doorway, each raindrop that hit her skin sizzled away like it was hitting a frying pan. Chilling cold air blew through the room. It was almost suffocating, it was so cold. 

Alisha stepped out into the storm. Lightning hitting the ground very close by with a sharp crack of thunder.

Jen burst out of Tonya’s grip and ran to the door. Three other girls caught her before she could go after her.

“Alisha, what are you doing! Where are you going!?” Jen cried after her.

The icy wind didn’t stop Alisha from turning around the side of the building and walking down the street back to the beach. Her steps were calm and determined.

The girls climbed on boxes to see the beach out of the windows. The girls holding Jen back dropped her to go run for the windows.

Jen bolted out the door and towards the beach, but just as she turned around the corner of the building, the icy air brought her to her knees. Rain pelted her face, smaller drops in her hair and eyelashes froze on the spot and made it hard to see.

Alisha was just a glowing green blur on the shore. Jen tried to call out, but her throat was so cold it was stopping her from speaking. The clouds above her were dark and swirling, some tornadoes formed and touched down in the water.

Suddenly, it was as if time slowed down. Dark faceless and robed figures hovered in the air above the beach. Wraiths!

Jen could only see the glowing outline of Alisha on the shoreline a few yards out.

A bolt of lightning came down from the clouds and Jen watched as it left the sky and traveled straight down. It connected, not with the ground, but with Alisha.

Jen watched as her sister fell down into the sand with an unceremonious thud and the waves of the ocean washed over her.

The wraiths stopped floating and went swirling down to the beach. The closer they got to the earth, the harder it was for Jen to breathe. Within moments of their descent, she passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

“I know we’re only a few weeks into school and skipping over a lot of the planned curriculum,” Mrs. Hughes tapped her wand in her hand a few times, “but this spell was highly recommended to add at the front of the year by the board of directors. It’s a very difficult spell and I’m not expecting results today, but all students are being required to know it to graduate.”

Mrs. Hughes was the abjuration teacher and the typical type that would be into the subject. She wore a white tank top tucked into a floral skirt that stopped mid-calf with buttons down the front. Her frizzy hair was pulled back with a yellow scrunchie into a low ponytail. Her classroom didn’t have desks and instead had each student standing on their own pilates mat. Her normal calm demeanor was replaced with one that seemed nervous or anxious.

“It’s very difficult because it’s not a spell widely practiced anymore. It’s a type of shielding spell that’s used against a particular magical creature,” Mrs. Hughes looked over to Jen and gulped, “the Wraith.” 

A couple kids started to whisper. Chloe Martan interrupted loudly, “I heard that they use Wraiths as prison guards and that the police let them feed off the lifeforce of the prisoners. Seems rather cruel and unusual.”

“That is just a rumor,” Mrs. Hughes corrected her, “All beings on this earth are capable of terrible acts of violence, but magical people can cause even more heinous crimes than murder. So, if they were used, it would be at maximum security prisons where true monsters are kept. However, it is not true.”

“Why don’t people practice it anymore?” a different voice sounded from the back of the class.

Mrs. Hughes breathed deeply through her nose, like she was considering how to best answer the question, her voice was shaky, “Wraiths, or Oppressors, Dementors, they have a lot of regional names, are creatures that are highly controlled by the government. They are not a being that is thought of very often by most people.” Mrs. Hughes turned away from Jen’s view and looked up to the ceiling, “However, with the accident that happened with those creatures last year… If you all were taught this spell, then maybe last year could have been prevented.” 

Jen cocked her head to the side to try to look at Mrs. Hughes’ face. It seemed Mrs. Hughes was holding in tears. Jen’s mouth fell open slightly. It was like her teacher felt responsible for what happened to her sister.

The teacher took a moment, righted herself, then turned towards the class, “Alright, expecto patronum.”

“It has two phases,” she turned to the left side of the class where the students, like Devon, who were taking their first formal abjuration class, were standing, “The first phase, and what I expect from my 101 students, is a shield. Much like the basic one you’ve learned last week. It’s very difficult to produce, so don’t be hard on yourself if nothing happens.” Then she turned to the right side of the classroom where the advanced students were standing, “My 103 students, since you’ve performed most shielding techniques, you might produce a different result. Your inner strength can manifest itself, usually in the shape of an animal. That manifestation can produce the shield for you. It’s quite a magnificent display.”

The teacher waved her wand and banners came unrolling from the ceiling. On the banners were animated drawings of wraiths. Jen looked up at the wraiths nervously. Their robes flowed ominously around their nothingness of a body.

Mrs. Hughes walked a few steps to the back of the class and turned to one of the banners. She lifted her wand once again, puffed up her chest and repeated, “Expecto Patronum!” A beautiful silver flamingo manifested from her wand and landed on the floor in front of her. It flapped its wings and called out. As it did, a radiant silver barrier grew from its mouth and flew towards the banner. The wraith on the banner flew away. The class clapped and cooed over the magnificent bird. The flamingo clicked its beak happily, then disappeared.

“Remember, find your inner peace and channel your strength.”

All the kids grabbed their wands and readied themselves. Mayte was the first to attempt. Nothing happened, but it gave the other kids courage to also try. As they all mustered the best pronunciation of the spell, Mrs. Hughes walked through the crowd and made corrections.

When she reached Jen, Jen wasn’t trying to cast the spell. Her mind was elsewhere.

“No judgement here, Jen, just growth. No harm in trying. Give it a whirl,” Mrs. Hughes was a little shocked to see Jen stop trying, it wasn’t a very common thing for Jen to do.

But her mind was somewhere else. She wanted to tell Mrs. Hughes that she didn’t do anything wrong and nothing could have prevented what happened. Instead the two stood awkwardly for a second. Jen picked up her wand and readied herself. She looked towards the wraith on her banner. Nothing could have prevented what happened.

Suddenly the classroom was bathed in bright silver light that made Jen jump out of her skin. A very large, regal Bison pranced through the room, projecting a huge forcefield that scared off several of wraith banners. The entire class clapped and Mrs. Hughes went rushing over to the star student that produced the very amazing results on their first attempts.

Jen looked back at the wraith on her flag. It floated in place, its robes pulsing slowly, ominously staring at her without a face. “Nothing could have prevented what happened,” Jen muttered to herself. 

Jen lifted her wand and aimed. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. The more she looked at the banner, the more she could feel its presence. It was like she could feel the icy air again. All she could see in her mind was her sister, falling onto the sand.

Tears formed in her eyes. She didn’t want to look at anyone. She could hear Mrs. Hughes giving advice to the class, but couldn’t really hear the exact words as her ears were flooded with the sound of her heartbeat. Suppressing the sadness became too much.

Jen calmly walked to the classroom door, whether anyone was attempting to stop her, she didn’t know or care. She opened the door and left. Jen quickened her pace and ran for the nearest secluded spot. She wedged herself on the opposite side of a large barnacle and starfish covered boulder jutting into the middle of the hallway. It was barely enough to cover her from any direction.

For the first time since her sister was pronounced dead, she cried. Jen threw her head into her hands and tried her hardest to suppress the loud sobs.

Jen was only alone a few moments before she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. Devon sat beside her silently. She wasn’t sure what to say.

“No judgement here, Jen, just growth,” Devon joked with a smile, but his voice was calm and soft. Jen smiled, a few more tears flooded out of her eyes.

“I feel like an idiot,” she admitted to Devon.

“Why? Because the person you loved in the whole world is missing and you feel sad about it?” Devon grew serious, his eyebrows scrunched together, “You absolutely have every right to be sad. Or mad, or whatever you want to feel about it. You’re not an idiot, so don’t ever say that again.”

Jen turned her body and wrapped her arms around Devon. She was so grateful for him. Devon in turn, wrapped his arms around her for a delightfully suffocating hug.

But Jen realized something and moved back from the hug. She looked Devon directly in the eyes. “Missing?” she asked him. He looked at her confused. Jen clarified, “you said she’s missing. Not dead.”

Devon’s eyes grew wide and nervous. He released his arms from around her shoulders. “Well, I um. We never actually found her… her body. I thought about what you said at her funeral for weeks afterwards.”

Devon looked up and down the empty hallway, “You know that I believe you when you said she was possessed. How you described her, not talking or looking at you, her eyes all glazed over. That’s definitely possession. And your sister would never walk out into a storm. Plus, there’s like, a million ways to get possessed using magic.”

He stopped for a moment, his mouth forming a frown, “it was the green skin and the appearance of wraiths that was really weird. I spent my entire summer trying to find out how everything was linked together. I researched every magical artifact I could find. And let me tell you, there were so many.”

Jen grabbed his hand with both of hers, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you!”

He looked at her softly. A look that made Jen feel like she needed to clear her throat. He nearly whispered, “I didn’t want to wrap you up in a tin foil hat and make you believe something that wasn’t real. What if I got the idea that she could be alive in your head, but we proved she was really gone? I would never forgive myself for stringing you along like that.”

“But you’re saying it now, so,” Jen replied, “you must think you found something worth telling me.”

“Well,” Devon looked down the hallways again, “I almost gave up until I overheard some breaking story in the mirror.” 

Jen smirked, to which Devon rolled his eyes, “My Gran still gets her news from magic mirrors, okay? Anyway, apparently some huge sporting event in the UK was attacked by a terrorist group over the summer. But the information they provided was really vague. So, I looked into it. It was some cult that wants to cull the world of Normies and people that aren’t born from two magical parents. They’re real extremists. I started researching them. It was tough. There was so much redacted information and coverups everywhere I looked.”

Jen was inching closer to him, hanging on his every word. Devon wasn’t one to make up stories or tell jokes, and this was a serious matter. 

“Apparently one of their head guys broke out of prison. A maximum security prison that’s guarded by a bunch of wraiths. It wasn’t the most reliable source ever, but if it’s true, the dates line up pretty well.”

“So,” Jen backed away from him and sat on her feet when a couple of flying fish went soaring past them and down the hallway, “you’re saying my sister was killed by a terrorist group for having a Normie father?”

“No, sorry, I’ll get to the point,” Devon leaned back against the wall, trying to find the ending point of his conversation, “This cult, the Deathbringers or whatever they’re called, they, of course, have sympathizers. There are groups all over the place that want to kill people for the fun of it. And one of those groups attacked a young girl in Oregon. Charles Fordinal was in that group.”

It was like all the lights in all the world turned on all at once and blinded Jen. Was Devon really implying that her sister’s boyfriend Taylor was somehow involved in her death?


End file.
